The Genius Perfumer of the Fallen Cult — Chapter 14
Luna Ether could only be obtained by very slowly distilling the silver Argentum that bloomed only on the cliffs of the western coast where fierce winds blew on nights when the full moon rose, using a crystal distiller.
It was a fragrance with a clean metallic scent, like a cold wind blowing, mixed with a faint floral aroma. Naturally, it was extremely expensive and difficult to obtain.
Prim opened the lid of the perfume ingredient.
A slightly murky yet sharply warm scent seeped out.
‘It’s not top-grade.’
To be precise, it was barely above low quality. Even the scent itself was subtly different.
‘It’s not exactly the same Luna Ether I used before.’
But even so, they had managed to stock such a thing?
“That! That must be used sparingly! It’s extremely rare and expensive! It’s really hard to make!”
Baron Corvas shouted as he jumped in alarm.
Prim nodded absentmindedly, added just a little more Luna Ether, and finally poured in infusions of sandalwood, cedarwood, and tonka bean.
Once everything mixed together, the perfume swirled into a deep color.
For the moment, everything was jumbled together—none of the scents harmonious, each ingredient loudly asserting itself.
But Prim could easily imagine the sweetness that would emerge when this chaos finally settled.
“W-wait! What, what did you do? You mixed everything? The ratio? You remember the ratio, right? Right?”
Baron Corvas stared at her in confusion, holding a pen and paper.
Then suddenly snapping back to his senses, he rushed toward her as if flying and sniffed the perfume in the bottle.
“T-this…! …This is?”
The rough and dense scent—completely different from what he expected—seemed to confuse him.
Prim simply looked at him blankly and nodded.
“You need to wait a little longer. For this fragrance… about three days?”
“Ah! It needs stabilization, of course.”
Prim hesitated for a moment, then took the handkerchief from the front pocket of his clothes.
She dropped a single drop of the mixed perfume onto the cloth and covered it with her hand.
The warmth of her hand slowly melted the fragments of scent.
Just as hard butter softens with warmth and releases a rich aroma like cream spread over white bread, the sharp scents that had been wildly tangled gradually softened and began to release a harmonious fragrance.
Prim gently adjusted the handkerchief, carefully controlling how the perfume gathered and spread.
Naturally, it could not compare to a perfume aged slowly over time.
But it was enough to guess what kind of fragrance it would become in the future.
When Prim handed the handkerchief back to him, Baron Corvas’s hands trembled slightly.
He slowly brought it to his nose and inhaled.
His pupils suddenly shrank—then widened.
He murmured,
“Oh, Letemors…!”
At first, it felt like breathing in a clear breeze blowing from a vast lavender field.
Then he realized that wasn’t all.
It was the scent of some unfamiliar garden.
A garden where flowers of every color bloomed and luscious fruits ripened.
The pure scent of lilies.
Geranium, similar to roses but touched with greener notes.
The citrus sharpness of bergamot.
The warmth of neroli.
And then the wind stirred by the warmth of the earth where those flowers bloomed slowly wrapped around him.
It was like walking leisurely through a sunlit garden, feeling beneath one’s feet the moist and warm scent of soil.
Baron Corvas trembled, a tear unconsciously slipping down his face.
It felt as if all of this were a miracle—like a divine blessing upon his future.
“With a fragrance like this… surely, with something like this…! The ratio! What’s the ratio? This must be recorded!”
Prim stared blankly at his awe and excitement.
‘A fragrance like this can’t create such a grand miracle.’
If she had used tonka bean absolute, it would certainly have had much deeper complexity.
But the tonka bean infusion available here made the scent somewhat rough and light at the end.
Therefore, it wouldn’t perfectly suit Letemors’s taste.
And that was exactly what Prim intended.
If they received some grand, overwhelming blessing from Letemors, Baron Corvas and his wife might think this was enough and rush straight to the imperial capital Vitrellia.
That would not do.
Prim casually wrote down the ratios.
At the same time, she looked somewhat dissatisfied at the perfume she had made—already spotting dozens of improvements that could be made even immediately.
Meanwhile, Baron Corvas stared at the fragrance as if worshipping a brilliant jewel.
Then he hurriedly composed his expression.
* * *
The temple of Letemors located in the territory of Sanbertal was small and modest compared to the luxurious temples in the imperial capital.
Even so, compared to the temple of Varin, it still seemed to shine with glory.
And when a flash of light truly burst from the prayer chamber of that temple, all the priests rushed toward it in alarm.
That light proved that a divine blessing had occurred.
For several decades, no temple in this territory had seen a light of this magnitude.
But when Baron Corvas emerged from the prayer chamber with an elated face, Priest Loret felt strange suspicion rather than admiration or blessing.
‘With that miserable perfuming skill of his… how on earth?’
Wasn’t he the one who had offered fragrances to Letemors until the sun set countless times, yet had never once received a proper blessing?
There had even been multiple occasions when he brought strange perfume oils containing who-knew-what ingredients—honestly, disgusting things.
Once, unable to endure the fishy smell, Loret had asked what on earth he used to make it.
And he had been accused absurdly of trying to steal the perfume formula.
Baron Corvas had even once suggested that perhaps this temple wasn’t a proper one, and that was why his prayers weren’t reaching Letemors.
To be honest, Loret had wanted to shout that even if given those formulas, he wouldn’t want them.
And now that man had suddenly created a fragrance capable of producing such a light?
Unless he had been struck by lightning, how was that possible?
Thinking that, Loret suddenly came to his senses.
No matter what, how could he suspect a believer who had faithfully offered perfumes all year long?
Feeling ashamed, he began reciting a prayer while glancing sideways.
But he quickly realized the priest beside him—who had run there with him—was thinking the exact same thing.
“He’s been bringing dog-shit level stuff and insisting it was heavenly fragrance all this time. So how…?”
“Pfft.”
Loret barely suppressed a laugh.
But the bishop was truly different.
In a calm yet clearly joyful voice, he welcomed Baron Corvas.
“Baron Corvas, congratulations on receiving Letemors’s blessing! What joy has reached our temple today.”
Hearing the bishop’s excited voice, Loret nodded as if agreeing while struggling to hide his suspicious expression.
In truth, Baron Corvas was the only person around here who had shown this much passion for perfumery.
‘Even if someone throws darts, if they throw a hundred times, one will eventually hit the center.’
“So this is the fragrance blessed by Letemors!”
At the bishop’s exclamation, the priests gathered around the bottle of perfume oil.
To hide his distrust—or perhaps out of habit from past experiences—Loret quietly covered his mouth and nose with the sleeve of his priestly robe.
Several other priests did the same.
The bishop glared at them reproachfully.
A small dish was filled with water, and beneath it a small candle was lit.
As the heat began to rise, the bishop stepped aside and gave Baron Corvas the place.
The candlelight flickered red across Baron Corvas’s face.
His chest trembled along with it.
Until now, he had received only faint, shadow-like blessings.
And when that happened, at best he would merely test the fragrance with an ordinary priest—not even the bishop—and attach a label to it.
Had there ever been a moment when everyone’s eyes gathered upon him like this?
He opened the bottle and dropped the perfume oil onto the water in the dish.
As the oil warmed, the fragrance began to spread.
The blessed scent quickly filled the inner chamber.
Baron Corvas clearly watched the expressions of the priests change.
The disbelief and contempt on their faces filled with shock and admiration.
And in the moment even the way they looked at him changed—
His body trembled.
